Cities and Thrones and Powers
Cities and Thrones and Powers,Stand in Time's eye,Almost as long as flowers,Which daily die.But, as new buds put forthTo glad new men,Out of the spent and unconsidered Earth,The Cities rise again.
This season's Daffodil,She never hears,What change, what chance, what chill,Cut down last year's:But with bold countenance,And knowledge small,Esteems her seven days' continuanceTo be perpetual.
So Time that is o'er-kind,To all that be,Ordains us e'en as blind,As bold as she:That in our very death,And burial sure,Shadow to shadow, well persuaded, saith,'See how our works endure!'
Words in this poem
- unconsidered a.
- Not considered or attended to; not regarded; inconsiderable; trifling.
- burial n.
- A grave; a tomb; a place of sepulture. [OE. buriel, buriels, grave, tomb, AS. byrgels, fr. byrgan to bury, and akin to OS. burgisli sepulcher.]
- saith
- 3d pers. sing. pres. of Say.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Cities and Thrones and Powers is in the public domain. This text is taken from Songs from Books, Project Gutenberg ebook #15529; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Rudyard Kipling, Cities and Thrones and Powers, in Songs from Books (1912), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #15529, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/kipling-songs-from-books/cities-and-thrones-and-powers.html, id L25362.
Form and metre
Cities and Thrones and Powers is 24 lines in 3 stanzas of 8 lines each. The metre is iambic trimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 89%).
See other poems in iambic trimeter.
Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.
Rhyme words, stanza by stanza
The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.
- 1 ABAB-C-C powersA · eyeB · flowersA · dieB · forth · menC · earth · againC
- 2 ABAB-C-C daffodilA · hearsB · chillA · year'sB · countenance · smallC · continuance · perpetualC
- 3 ABABCDCD kindA · beB · blindA · sheB · deathC · sureD · saithC · endureD
Scansion, line by line
Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. Read against iambic trimeter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Cities and Thrones and Powers, | 7 | /˘···/˘ |
| Stand in Time's eye, | 4 | ···· |
| Almost as long as flowers, | 7 | /····/˘ |
| Which daily die. | 4 | ·/˘· |
| But, as new buds put forth | 6 | ······ |
| To glad new men, | 4 | ···· |
| Out of the spent and unconsidered Earth, | 10 | ·········· |
| The Cities rise again. | 6 | ·/˘·˘/ |
| This season's Daffodil, | 6 | ·/˘/˘· |
| She never hears, | 4 | ·/˘· |
| What change, what chance, what chill, | 6 | ······ |
| Cut down last year's: | 4 | ···· |
| But with bold countenance, | 6 | ···/˘˘ |
| And knowledge small, | 4 | ·/˘· |
| Esteems her seven days' continuance | 9 | ˘/·/·˘/˘˘ |
| To be perpetual. | 6 | ··˘/˘˘ |
| So Time that is o'er-kind, | 6 | ······ |
| To all that be, | 4 | ···· |
| Ordains us e'en as blind, | 6 | ˘/···· |
| As bold as she: | 4 | ···· |
| That in our very death, | 7 | ··/˘/˘· |
| And burial sure, | 5 | ·/˘˘· |
| Shadow to shadow, well persuaded, saith, | 10 | /··/··˘/˘· |
| 'See how our works endure!' | 7 | ··/˘·˘/ |
The reader shows the same poem with its rhymes coloured and a stress row above each line, the notes beside their stanzas, and any word's definition on a tap; the analysis page takes the whole book apart. How every part of this site was made.